GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - God, tired of this same ol' rhetoric about how to turn around the economy...

Was watching a DVR'd Larry King just now and heard this for the millionth time: "We need to get consumer confidence up so that people will go out and spend money." (and consequently afterwards the guy mentioned fixing up the mortgage problems). I've heard it 100 times already but I guess this straw broke the camel's back.

That is NOT what the problem is nor is it a solution, and I'm tired of political/economic analysts and politicians thinking that it is. It is NOT that people don't WANT to spend money, it's that people can't AFFORD to spend money.

That's what worries me about the times ahead. Is the government going to work on brainwashing us to spend the last $1,000 in our bank account on a new HDTV and max out our credit cards instead of saving money and staying out of debt like the old ways taught us, or are they going to actually fix the problems that affect how much money we have and what we can afford? I for one have some stocks that should realistically not have been affected much if at all by the recent economic woes, but thanks to all the companies that WERE, their stocks plummeted anyways. In all of this, in the business world, it's those companies I feel sorry for...they didn't do shit to get stung by this mess.

The bailouts: The once leaders of the financial, auto, etc. sectors are now wounded elephants and instead of letting natural selection happen, the government is putting band-aids on them. What's the point of feeding money to a company that makes shitty decisions, puts most if not all of their eggs in a flimsy basket (i.e. subprime lending), and clearly can't operate for shit anyways? It's not only not going to solve anything, but it's going to make the bottom drop out even worse than it already has.

Likewise, they're probably going to do exactly the same thing for consumers. People who couldn't afford to buy houses shouldn't have bought houses, and they're going to either get a free ride or their fares mostly paid so to speak. The people that made SMART decisions and COULD afford their mortgages but see their house values plummet merely because of other people's/companies' stupidity and their effects on the economy all of a sudden see themselves in major debt through absolutely no fault of their own, but what are the chances the government would help someone with a GOOD mortgage who's not bankrupt but living month-to-month and barely staying current on their mortgage thanks to the economy? "30 year fixed 5.xx% mortgage? Clearly you have nothing to worry about!"

I have no problem helping people in need...that's what charities are for, because most recipients of charity money are truly people in need that had little to no bearing on how they arrived at their horrible situation (I'm talking about true charities of course, not shammy ones). Meanwhile the govt is more or less becoming the biggest charity in the world and will be helping companies and people that made shitty decisions to dive into shitty situations head-first and were too stupid to understand the incredible risks involved. We're going to REWARD people and companies for being stupid and careless with themselves and their money. The New American Way.